John Maris led police to Great Train Robbers tells of years of fear and death threats | Daily Mail Online comments Worry: Farm worker John Maris, who was responsible for helping police track down the Great Train Robbers' hideout, has told how he received death threats in the years following the notorious gang's conviction. He is pictured at the time The farm worker responsible for helping police track down the Great Train Robbers' hideout has told how he received death threats in the years following the notorious gang's conviction. John Maris' tip off to police about the strange behavior at Leatherslade Farm in Buckinghamshire, provided detectives with the big clue they were looking for in the hunt for the gang. The farm provided vital clues used in the conviction of 16 of the gang in what was dubbed 'The Crime of the Century'. But after being hailed a national hero - and picking up a £19,000 cheque in front of the Press - things quickly turned sour for the herdsman and his wife. He was sent threatening messages in the post, with his wife Grace receiving a letter which had a drawing of a coffin with her husband's name on it.

The situation became so bad that Mr Maris began to carry around a wooden truncheon for protection. He even placed jars of acid and wooden staves around the farm buildings in case he was attacked. Speaking for the first time about the events following the robbery, Mr Maris, 83, told the Daily Mirror: 'I was constantly scared, always worried. The fear lasted for years. I was always looking over my shoulder.' Thursday marks the 50th anniversary since the gang of robbers, masterminded by Bruce Reynolds, stopped the Glasgow-Euston overnight mail train in the biggest robbery of its time. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share The 17-strong gang held up the Royal Mail travelling post office in Buckinghamshire as it ran between Glasgow and London.

Helpful: His tip off to police about the strange behavior at Leatherslade Farm in Buckinghamshire, pictured, provided detectives with the big clue they were looking for in the hunt for the gang Important: The farm provided vital clues used in the conviction of 16 of the gang in what was dubbed 'The Crime of the Century' They escaped with a then record £2.6million – about £45 million in today’s money - in a crime which became a public obsession. After vanishing into the night, the police revealed they thought the gang were hiding within a 30-mile radius of the site of the robbery and put out public appeals for help. Mr Maris had witnessed strange behaviour at Leatherslade Farm and decided to take a closer look and was immediately struck by the scene in front of him. Fear: The farm worker responsible for helping police track down the Great Train Robbers' hideout has told how he received death threats in the years following the notorious gang's conviction. This shows the train which was targeted The £2.6 million stolen by the Great Train Robbers fifty years ago.

It was the biggest robbery of its time The windows of the house had been blacked out, leading Mr Maris to contact the police, actions which changed his life forever. Speaking last week, Ronnie Biggs told how he was proud to have been part of the gang. The famous fugitive, who escaped from prison in 1965, spent 36 years on the run before finally being arrested and jailed in 2001. Charles Wilson (left) and Bruce Reynolds (right) were both also involved in the Great Train Robbery Roy John James (left) and Ronnie Biggs (right) were both jailed for 30 years for their part in the robbery William Boal (left) and Roger John Cordrey (right) at court in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire Released from prison on compassionate grounds in 2009 due to ill health he is still alive, being cared for in a north London nursing home. And he has few regrets about the crime that made him a household name. Biggs, who cannot speak and communicates through a spelling board, said: 'If you want to ask me if I have any regrets about being one of the train robbers, my answer is, "No!".

Ronnie Biggs (pictured) said that he only regrets that the train driver was hurt and the pain he has caused his family investigating police taking measurements at Cheddington Station, Buckinghamshire on one of the coaches of the train August 8 marks the 50th anniversary since the gang of robbers, masterminded by Bruce Reynolds, stopped the Glasgow-Euston overnight train Glass scattered on the floor of one of two vans which, with a giant diesel locomotive, were uncoupled from the train 'I will go further: I am proud to have been one of them. I am equally happy to be described as the "tea-boy" or "The Brain". 'I was there that August night and that is what counts. I am one of the few witnesses - living or dead - to what was "The Crime of the Century'." But although he is proud to have been involved in the headline-grabbing crime, he admitted he does have some regrets. 'It is regrettable, as I have said many times, that the train driver was injured,' he said. 'And he was not the only victim. 'The people who paid the heaviest price for the Great Train Robbery are the families.

The families of everyone involved in the Great Train Robbery, and from both sides of the track.' 'CRIME OF THE CENTURY': WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERS? Bruce Reynolds Gang-leader and mastermind Reynolds was nicknamed 'Napoleon' and after the Great Train Robbery he fled to Mexico on a false passport and was joined by his wife, Angela, and son, Nick. They later moved on to Canada but the cash from the robbery ran out and he came back to England. Five years after the heist, in 1968, a broke Reynolds was captured in Torquay and sentenced to 25 years in jail. He was released on parole in 1978 and moved, alone and penniless, into a tiny flat off London's Edgware Road. In the 1980s he was jailed for three years for dealing amphetamines. After his second release, Reynolds went on to work briefly as a consultant on a film about the robbery, Buster, and published the Autobiography of a Thief in 1995. His son Nick said his father had died in his sleep in the early hours of February 28 2013.

Great Train Robbers all together at the launch of a book. (L-R) Buster Edwards, Tommy Wisbey, Jim White, Bruce Reynolds, Roger Cordrey, Charles Wilson and Jim Hussey Ronnie Biggs Ronald Arthur 'Ronnie' Biggs played a minor role in the robbery, but his life as a fugitive after escaping from prison gained him notoriety. He was given a 30-year sentence in 1964, but he escaped after 15 months by fleeing over the walls of London's Wandsworth prison in April 1965. After having plastic surgery, he lived as a fugitive for 36 years in first Australia then Brazil, where he fathered a son Michael. His health deteriorated in 2001 and he returned to the UK voluntarily where he was sent back to prison. He was finally freed in 2009 on 'compassionate grounds' by then Justice Secretary Jack Straw who said he was not expected to recover. He remains in a nursing home in north London. Ronald 'Buster' Edwards An ex-boxer, club owner and small-time crook who fled to Mexico after the heist but gave himself up in 1966.

Edwards is widely believed to be the man who wielded the cosh used to hit train driver Jack Mills over the head. Mills' family say he never recovered, and he died seven years later. Edwards served nine years in jail and then became a familiar figure selling flowers outside Waterloo station in London. He was the subject of the 1988 film Buster, in which he was played by Phil Collins. Edwards was found hanged in a garage in 1994 at the age of 62. Two wreaths in the shape of trains accompanied his funeral cortege. Charlie Wilson Wilson was the gang's 'treasurer' who gave each of the robbers their cut of the haul. He was captured quickly and during his trial at Aylesbury Crown Court in 1964 earned the nickname 'the silent man' as he refused to say anything. He was jailed for 30 years but escaped after just four months. He was captured again in Canada after four years on the run and served 10 more years in jail. He was the final train robber to emerge from prison in 1978.

Wilson moved to Marbella, Spain, where he was shot and killed by a hitman on a bicycle in 1990. The interior of the mail train after the £2.6 million robbery. It was the largest robbery of its kind Roy James A silversmith and racing driver, James dreamed of investing his share of the loot in new car technology. He was nicknamed 'Weasel' and was the chief getaway driver. James left a tell-tale fingerprint at the gang's farm hideout after the heist and was caught following a chase over rooftops in London. Jailed for 30 years, he served 12 and later sold silver from a market stall before moving to Spain. James was jailed again for six years in 1993 after shooting his wife's father and hitting her with a pistol. He died at the age of 62, soon after getting out of prison. Brian Field A crooked solicitor who the gang used for the conveyancing when they bought the farm hideout used after the heist. Field was arrested and sentenced to 25 years, which was later reduced to five. He died in a motorway crash in 1979.

Clothing and camping equipment found by police at Leatherslade Farm which was used as a hide-out by the gang Bill Boal An engineer who was arrested with Roger Cordrey in possession of £141,000. Reynolds said he had never heard of Boal. He claimed Boal was not involved in the robbery and was "an innocent man". Boal was charged with receiving stolen goods and jailed for 24 years, which was reduced to 14 on appeal. He died of cancer in jail in 1970. Tommy Wisbey RIP, the infamous farmhouse of '63 | The Independent RIP, the infamous farmhouse of '63 Saturday 8 August 1992 23:02 BST Click to follow The Independent Online THE MOST notorious farmhouse in the country is likely to be demolished. Leatherslade Farm, near Oakley, Buckinghamshire, was the hideout of the Great Train Robbers.

It was 29 years ago yesterday that Ronald Biggs, Buster Edwards, Roy 'The Weasel' James and co stopped the Glasgow-Euston Royal Mail train at Sears Crossing, near Linslade in Buckinghamshire, and stole pounds 2,631,684. Jack Mills, the driver, was hit over the head with an iron bar and later died from the injuries he received. For the next two days the robbers holed up at Leatherslade, a secluded three-bedroom farmhouse. Police found the farmhouse five days later, empty except for one mailbag containing pounds 628 10s. The gang had obviously planned a long wait - the police found 200 eggs, supplies of canned food, and 34 toilet rolls. In the garage were two Land- Rovers and a three-ton lorry with a false bottom. Now, Paul Morris, Leatherslade's owner, who according to a neighbour has lived at the farm for '15 to 20 years', has applied to the local council for permission to demolish the farm and build a red-brick house on the site. He would say only: 'It is entirely our business.

No one's interested in it any more.' Paul Maling, Mr Morris's surveyor, said the farmhouse was ' horrible, a mixture of everything - red brick, rendered, slates, felt, Roman tiles. We're going to knock it down before it falls down and rebuild it.' The replacement will be 'nothing too fancy. Plain tiles, brick, the same height as it is now - two storeys.' Neighbours' recollections of the events of 29 years ago have become colourful as the years have passed. One said the robbers used to go to the Royal Oak pub in Oakley. 'They used to go in separately. They never spoke to each other and no one knew it was them until afterwards.' This came as a surprise to Buster Edwards, who now runs a flower stall outside Waterloo station in London. 'The only time we left the house was when we left,' he said. He has returned to Leatherslade 'a few times', but met an icy reception from Mr Morris. 'I went up a few years ago when we were filming Buster. He wouldn't let us use it. He's built a big fence all the way round.

He hates all the attention.' (Photograph omitted) BBC NEWS | UK | England | Echoes of the Great Train Robbery Echoes of the Great Train Robbery By James Clarke BBC News, England The Great Train Robbery was the UK's biggest heist at the time The search at a farm in Kent by police investigating the ï¿½53m Securitas raid has echoes of the hunt for the gang behind the Great Train Robbery. On 8 August 1963, ï¿½2.6m in used bank notes was stolen from the overnight Glasgow to London mail train. The 15 robbers had stopped the train by switching a signal from green to red near Cheddington in Buckinghamshire. Five days later a tip-off led police to their hideaway at Leatherslade Farm, about 20 miles away. The gang had been holed up in the farm while they shared out the contents of the 120 bags of money - which would amount to about ï¿½40m at today's values. 'Sordid crime of violence' Like the Securitas raid, it was the UK's biggest ever robbery at the time.

Police found a host of evidence at the farm, which proved to be vital in capturing the robbers. The train robbers left behind vital evidence at Leatherslade Farm They had played monopoly there using some of the ï¿½1, ï¿½5 and ï¿½10 notes they had stolen from the mail train - and the monopoly set was among the places the gang members left giveaway fingerprints. It was only nine days after the discovery of the farm hideaway that the first of the robbers, Charlie Wilson, was arrested and charged. The trial of 12 gang members began at Buckinghamshire Assizes in Aylesbury in January 1964. Only one pleaded guilty - Roger Cordrey, who gave back his ï¿½80,000 share of the loot - but in April of that year all 12 men were convicted. In passing sentence, Mr Justice Edmund Davies focused on the violence against train driver Jack Mills, who was coshed over the head when the gang stormed the train and never worked again.

The judge said: "Let us clear out of the way any romantic notions of daredevilry, this is nothing less than a sordid crime of violence inspired by vast greed." Securitas raid police descended on a farm in Kent on Tuesday Eleven of the men - including the man who was to become the robbery's most famous name, Ronnie Biggs - were given sentences of between 20 and 30 years. The twelfth man, solicitor John Wheater, was jailed for three years for obtaining the farm for use as a hideout, though it was accepted he did not know about the robbery until it had happened. The three remaining gang members were all jailed by 1969, including Buster Edwards, who had gone on the run to Mexico immediately after the crime but gave himself up three years later, and the robbery's mastermind Bruce Reynolds. But two of the men escaped from jail after less than two years - Wilson, who was recaptured in Canada in 1968, and Biggs, who evaded capture until he returned to the UK in ill health in 2001, with more than three decades on the run having earned him celebrity status.

The Monopoly set from the farm is now on display at the Thames Valley Police Museum, along with other exhibits relating to the robbery. Whether any evidence found at the farm near Staplehurst searched by Kent Police this week goes down in history in a similar way remains to be seen. Land Rovers used in famous Great Train Robbery - Aug 08, 1963 - HISTORY.com Land Rovers used in famous Great Train Robbery Share this: Land Rovers used in famous Great Train Robbery Author Land Rovers used in famous Great Train Robbery URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1963, the 15 thieves involved in the Great Train Robbery, one of the most famous heists of all time, escape in an ex-British Army truck and two stolen Land Rover four-wheel drive all-terrain vehicles, making off with some $7 million in stolen loot. The mastermind of the Great Train Robbery was Bruce Reynolds, a known burglar and armed robber. Inspired by the railroad heists of the Wild West in America, Reynolds and 14 other men wearing ski masks and helmets held up the Royal Mail train heading between Glasgow, Scotland, and London, England.

They used a false red signal to get the train to stop, then hit the driver with an iron bar, seriously injuring him, in order to gain control of the train. The thieves loaded 120 mailbags filled with the equivalent of $7 million in used bank notes into their Land Rovers and sped off. The vehicles had been stolen in central London and marked with identical license plates in order to confuse the police. In their hideout at Leatherslade Farm in Buckinghamshire, England, the robbers divided their loot. Viewed as folk heroes by the public for the audacious scale of their crime and their flight from justice, 12 of the 15 robbers nevertheless were eventually captured. In all, the gang of thieves received a total sentence of some 300 years. One of them, a small-time hood named Ronnie Biggs, escaped from prison after just 15 months and underwent plastic surgery to change his appearance. He fled the country and eluded capture for years, finally giving himself up in 2001 when he returned from Brazil voluntarily to serve the 28 years remaining in his sentence.

The two Land Rovers used in the robbery were discovered at the thieves’ hideout; a car enthusiast still owns one of them today. Produced by the British-based Rover Company, the Land Rover made its debut at the Amsterdam Motor Show in 1948. It was modeled after the four-wheel drive American-made Jeeps used by the British War Department during World War II and was made of cheaper, readily available aluminum alloy due to the postwar shortage of steel. By 1960, Land Rover production had reached 500,000 vehicles per year, and the all-terrain vehicle had become popular in all types of climates–desert, jungle and city–around the world. Rover later introduced an upscale version called the Range Rover, which become another bestseller for the company. The German automaker BMW purchased Rover in 1994, but split the brand six years later, selling the Land Rover name to Ford Motor Company. In 2008, Ford sold Land Rover, along with Jaguar, to Tata Motors Ltd., India’s top automaker.

Related Videos The Great Train Robbery: A look back at the notorious British heist - NBC News Aug 7 2013, 6:06 pm ET The Great Train Robbery: A look back at the notorious British heist by David R Arnott advertisement Police examine one of the cars on the Glasgow to London mail train near Bridego Railway Bridge in Buckinghamshire, England, the morning after the train was attacked and robbed on Aug. 8, 1963. The 2.6 million pound heist became known as the "Great Train Robbery." Popperfoto / Getty Images Fifty years ago a criminal gang pulled off one of the most notorious heists in British history — the " Great Train Robbery. " A photo issued by Scotland Yard of Bruce Reynolds, the mastermind behind the heist, in 1963. Paul Popper / Popperfoto / Getty Images In the early morning hours of August 8, 1963, 15 men held up the Glasgow-to-London mail train as it passed through the English countryside by tampering with a signal.

The train, which usually carried large amounts of money in the second car behind the engine, was carrying even more cash than usual because of a just-completed bank holiday weekend in Scotland. The perpetrators made off with about 120 bags of cash, mostly in small bills. The total haul was about 2.6 million pounds, equivalent to about 46 million pounds or $71 million in today's money. By December of 1963 most of the gang had been apprehended, but mastermind Bruce Reynolds spent five years on the run and his accomplice Ronnie Biggs escaped from prison. Biggs fled to Brazil where he led a playboy lifestyle for over 30 years, pursued by journalists, curious tourists and Jack Slipper , a Scotland Yard detective who became famous for his dogged attempts to bring the gang to justice. Biggs finally surrendered to British police in 2001. The train driver, Jack Mills, was left with a serious head injury after being assaulted during the robbery. He died seven years later, and many people believed the injuries he sustained during the heist contributed to his death.

-- Reuters and ITV News contributed to this report The equivalent of about $71 million was stolen from the mail train in 1963. Popperfoto / Getty Images Police stand on the Bridego Railway Bridge in Buckinghamshire, England with the locomotive and first two carriages of the train on the morning after it was robbed. Paul Popper / Popperfoto / Getty Images Ronald "Ronnie" Biggs leaves Aylesbury Police Station under heavy guard on Oct. 7, 1965. Bentley Archive / Popperfoto / Getty Images Train driver Jack Mills, who was deemed a hero, rests at home after the robbery, in 1963. Keystone / Getty Images Police officers put bags of evidence into a car trunk in August 1963. Evening Standard/Getty Images Posters on a police notice board carry information about fowl pests, the Colorado beetle, bike helmets and a 10,000 pound reward by the Buckinghamshire Constabulary for information regarding a robbery of "registered packets" from the Glasgow-Euston train. Evening Standard / Getty Images Three of the suspects arrested in connection with the "Great Train Robbery" leave a courthouse with blankets over their heads.

Central Press / Getty Images Police stand guard outside Leatherslade Farm at Oakley in Buckinghamshire on Aug. 13, 1963. The farm was used as a hideout by the Great Train Robbers after the heist. Keystone / Getty Images The police found 35,000 pounds in banknotes hidden in the walls of a caravan owned by James White, one of the robbers. Keystone / Getty Images David R Arnott 'The crime of the century': The story of the Great Train Robbery | UK | News | Daily Express UK 'The crime of the century': The story of the Great Train Robbery THE Great Train Robbery was dubbed the 'crime of the century after Ronnie Biggs and the rest of his gang grabbed banknotes worth £2.6 million - £46 million in today's terms - from a Royal Mail train.

12:03, Wed, Dec 18, 2013 GETTY The train appeared shortly after 3am and stopped at a set of fake signals the gang had put up After hitting Mills so hard, they then had to drag him back and make him drive it Malcolm Fewtrell The mastermind behind the operation, career thief Bruce Reynolds, assembled at least 15 hardened criminals - including Biggs - for the job he called the "big one". Reynolds' plan was to hold up the night mail train from Glasgow to Euston as it passed through the Buckinghamshire countryside close to Cheddington. It was carrying huge numbers of used banknotes. As the gang waited, Reynolds was so confident that everything had been planned down to the smallest detail that he calmly lit a Montecristo No 2 cigar - but a series of blunders followed. The train appeared shortly after 3am and stopped at a set of fake signals the gang had put up. Train driver Jack Mills got out to see what was going on and was coshed over the head and knocked senseless.

SWNS A reward poster isued after the Great Train Robbery The gang found it impossible to unload the cash and the crooked train driver they had brought along with them, recruited by Biggs, could not work the controls. Malcolm Fewtrell, the police officer who led Buckinghamshire CID at the time, said: "These were dedicated professional criminals and it was all organised, but it could have failed at any time. "They stopped the train at the false signals but they couldn't unload it because it was a sheer drop. "They had brought along their own driver to take it where they needed to but when they sat him in the train he couldn't drive it." Mr Fewtrell, who has since died, said: "After hitting Mills so hard, they then had to drag him back and make him drive it. "Mills had a nasty head wound and if he had been a bit more injured the whole thing would have failed then." The train was driven a mile and a half to Bridego Bridge where the gang unloaded £2,631,684 in used notes. SWNS Police photos of the Robbers They then took the cash 25 miles by lorry to Leatherslade Farm.

A crooked solicitor had been used to buy the farm and the gang planned to hole up there until the heat died down. They had thought the farm would never come under suspicion - a huge mistake. After handcuffing the train staff when they made their getaway, the robbers warned them not to do anything for 30 minutes. That allowed detectives to conclude quickly that the gang was probably hiding within a radius of about 30 miles. As the police closed in, they divided the money and fled. Mr Fewtrell said: "They weren't stupid but for professional, dedicated criminals they left an awful lot of fingerprints." The gang had even played Monopoly with some of the loot and left fingerprints on the board. A huge nationwide hunt was launched, with the public urged to keep an eye out for people spending a lot of money, and the names and pictures of some robbers were given to newspapers. The first arrests - those of Roger Cordrey and William Boal - were made in Bournemouth when Cordrey had some bad luck. He tried to rent a lock-up from a policeman's widow. GETTY The uncoupled train coaches at Cheddington Station By December most of the robbers had been arrested.

Twelve of them were jailed for a total of more than 300 years but more than one broke out of jail, including Biggs, who spent more than 30 years on the run. Mr Fewtrell believed four robbers got away. He said: "We knew who they were but there was nothing on them. They didn't leave their fingerprints like some of the others. "They got away with their £150,000. They knew they were safe so they could still be in the country. I don't know where they went." Despite the vicious attack on Mr Mills, Biggs and the other robbers are often perceived to have been from a more gentlemanly era than today's gangsters. Mr Fewtrell said his relations with them were always cordial and gentlemanly. "I got on with all of them, without exception," he said. And, with the passing of time, many of the robbers found themselves receiving a measure of forgiveness from the public. Reynolds marked the 40th anniversary of the robbery in 2003 as guest of honour at a fete in Oakley, Buckinghamshire, close to the gang's hideout at Leatherslade Farm.

PA Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs has died aged 84 Reynolds, who died earlier this year, said: "As a career criminal you reach a pinnacle and that was it - it was a bit like a journalist finding out Hitler was still alive. "Plus it had those elements of fantasy - I was brought up on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Jesse James. "Other crimes have got their points but for the audacity of it and the way it captured the public imagination, it's up there. "The flaw from our point of view was that everything was planned up until we divided up the money. "Everyone had got their own plans as to how to get away. "Someone had been paid to clear the farm of all the evidence and they didn't do it and there were clues left. "I'm still dubious about the fingerprints, though - we were experienced people who knew to wear gloves." Reynolds also claimed his men were not to blame for the death of Mr Mills, which came several years later in 1970. "Sometimes you have some very sad results but he died of acute leukaemia and we were totally exonerated by a Home Office coroner," he said.

The most notorious criminals in the world Fri, January 6, 2017 REUTERS 1 of 12 Charles Manson is an American criminal who formed a commune called the Manson family in the late 60s who committed a series of murders [REUTERS] Related articles I turned in the Great Train Robbers... and it turned my life upside-down - Mirror Online I turned in the Great Train Robbers... and it turned my life upside-down Herdsman who turned hero breaks his silence to reveal deat threat terror Share Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email AS he crept through the bushes outside the isolated farmhouse, John Maris set in motion a chain of events that would plague his life. His suspicions raised by strange behaviour at a nearby property, John had become convinced he had found what the country was looking for — the secret hideout of the Great Train Robbers. And he was right. His tip-off to police was later described as “the one big clue” in the hunt for the gang of thieves, including Bruce Reynolds and Ronnie Biggs, who had stolen the equivalent of £45million from an overnight mail train.

The Great Train Robbery was quickly dubbed “the Crime of the Century” and John was hailed a national hero. But for the vigilant farmworker, his moment of fame led to years of fear, too. His mailbox filled with letters from the public praising his bravery, but he also started receiving threatening messages. Speaking for the first time about the aftermath of the robbery — which happened 50 years ago on Thursday — the 83-year-old says: “I was constantly scared, always worried. That fear lasted for years, I was always looking over my shoulder. “Even when we moved away from the area the person who took my job phoned me one day to say to be careful because four men had been to the farm in a car and were asking for me. It was suspicious.” And recalling some of the worst letters he and his family received, he says: “Some were bogus but some were not. I remember one in particular that threatened my family and myself. It could only have been written by someone who had been at the farm.” WORRIED His wife was not immune to the threats. Opening one envelope, she kept it secret, afraid to divulge its contents to her already worried husband.

John adds: “It was only later Grace told me she opened a letter and it had a drawing of a coffin on which was written my name, John Maris. This obviously caused her great distress.” When he first called police to report his suspicions, all John had in mind was to do his duty as a citizen. The gang, all wearing balaclava masks, had carried out the raid with military-style precision in less than 45 minutes, stopping the train at Ledburn, Bucks, with a fake red light, then forming a human chain to carry 128 sacks holding £2.6million — worth £45million today — into a waiting truck. They vanished into the night, leaving behind an empty mail train and an injured driver, Jack Mills, who had been coshed on the head when he momentarily resisted. Police quickly revealed they believed the gang were hiding within 30 miles of the site of the robbery and began their search, putting out appeals to the public for help. John was working in Oakley, a quiet Buckinghamshire village 25 miles away. “I was a herdsman for a farmer but I was no poorly educated country yokel,” he recalls.

“I’d been to agricultural college and had hopes of one day working my own farm. “I remember joking that morning, ‘Who’d want to pinch a train?’ Then my next remark was ‘that will be them up on the farm,’ indicating Leatherslade Farm next door. It was just a funny passing remark.” But soon he realised his jokey comments might not have been too far from the truth. Leatherslade Farm had been bought just weeks before and the farm worker had seen an old Army truck and Land Rovers going to and from the isolated buildings. John recalls: “The newspapers were full of the story and how the police were looking for remote farmhouses and buildings where they thought the gang might be hiding. “There was one time I noticed a Land Rover and some men in the back go up to the farm. They were meticulous about closing gates, which seemed unusual during the day between milking times. “After I inspected the heifers, I decided to take a closer look at the farmhouse and so I climbed through a gap in the hedge. “As I arrived on the track which passed between the farmhouse and the outbuildings I was struck by the scene in front of me.

“The windows of the house had been adorned with various covers as curtains but it was odd because they were drawn fully across the windows with only the bottom corners in the centre drawn back. Why would anyone in an isolated house on top of a hill want to black out windows in that way? I knew then that this was the hideout of the train robbers that the police were looking for. I did not hang about as I was not sure if anyone was inside. I was scared, right enough.” John immediately called the police hotline set up after the raid, but no action was taken so he rang again the following day. “Again I told them this was the location of the robbers hideout,” he says. “It was the police officer I’d spoken to the day before and he remembered what I’d told him. “Three hours later two constables on motorcycles casually showed up and asked if I knew the location of Leatherslade Farm. I pointed it out to them and they returned after less than half an hour.” One of them told him: “You’ve really started something now!” Leatherslade Farm, later dubbed the “The Robbers’ Roost”, provided vital clues used in the conviction of 16 of the gang.

John was thrust into the full glare of the public when he collected a £19,000 cheque at a London hotel in front of a bank of photographers. His reward — worth more than £250,000 now — came from grateful banks and the Royal Mail. He adds: “When we returned home we settled into a routine knowing we had more security as far as finance was concerned. I bought a new car and decided to leave my job and bought my own house.” But along with the money came fears for the safety of John and his family. He recalls: “I felt it, but my wife Grace felt it even more. It was she who mainly opened the threatening letters and saw their contents. It was only very recently she admitted to me that some of them she never showed me, but took to the police who said they’d deal with it. “She bottled it up and by doing so thought she was protecting me. I never knew she had been to the police at the time.” They became so worried about the potential repercussions that Grace even sewed a long pocket into John’s trousers — for him to carry a wooden truncheon with him at all times for protection.

Around the farm buildings he carefully placed jars of acid and wooden staves. “Thankfully, I never had to use them,” he says. “Grace and the children bought an Alsatian puppy which soon grew and became very protective. This may all appear very dramatic but at the time it seemed very necessary.” But life was to get worse for the couple when — a year after the robbery — a relative of train robber Tommy Wisbey brought a private prosecution against John alleging perjury. The legal action was part of a defence strategy by three of the gang — Wisbey, James Hussey and Robert Welch — who claimed they had never been at the farm and their fingerprints were only found because they had turned up two days afterwards. They had to disprove John’s testimony that he had not seen anyone drive up that day. John says: “It was shocking, an awful time. Friends of some of the robbers had come up with an alibi but they needed to discredit my evidence.

“I came home from work one day to find my wife and children in tears.” In a series of hearings, at Aylesbury magistrates court and then the High Court, the case was eventually dismissed — and the man who had been acclaimed as a national hero was cleared. But even that came at a price: “My legal costs came to more than £4,000. That was quite a sum, equivalent to the price of a detached house. I never got it back.” John kept diaries recording his involvement in solving the “Crime of the Century” but kept them private for decades. In the conclusion to his written account, he said: “For many years after the Great Train Robbery, wherever it was recalled, my wife Grace suffered terribly and this, we were assured, was due to the original shock to her nervous system. “I bitterly regret that she should have suffered so much as a result of my actions in the events of the Great Train Robbery. I think the first four or five months after the robbery I was particularly frightened, even though I was a young, fit farm worker.

“Of course it shaped our lives, we were then a happy family and we intended to stay in the area and wanted to progress with owning our own small-holding we would rent from the council, then eventually own our own farm. “But we moved away, although I stayed in the general farming business and that has been good for us. “In terms of how I view people, it made me mistrust people. I then began to question every person’s motives, so it influenced my life rather than changing it completely.” Looking back today, John still wonders if it was the right decision for his family to have called the police 50 years ago. “Yes, I did regret getting involved,” he says. “I thought, at the time, ‘God, what have I done? What have I let myself in for?’ But I had to accept I was involved and had to get on with it. At the time I regretted it but over time that feeling has faded. “We never realised at the time how big it would become — it built it’s momentum.

But I knew even then they were a professional gang who’d coshed the train driver, so I think I knew what I was letting myself in for.” Like us on Facebook The great train robbery | by OffTheClothBoff Standard Reply Great Train Robbery In spite of the facts about the so-called Great Train Robbery – that it was a nasty robbery with violence carried out by career criminals – it has somehow gone into legend in Britain as something of a romantic enterprise. A total of £2.6 million was stolen from a night-mail train running between Glasgow and Euston . The money stolen was being taken to be destroyed, so was all in used notes with no record of serial numbers. The robbers halted the train by tricking the driver with a tampered signal – a glove masked the green bulb, and the red was operated with a battery. At 3.15 in the morning the train came to a halt near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. During the attack the deputy driver was bundled down the embankment, and Jack Mills the driver was struck with a crowbar. Though he recovered he suffered from the injury and trauma for the rest of his life, dying in 1970 without ever returning to work.

Some 120 sacks of banknotes were thrown from Bridego Railway Bridge to which the relevant carriage had been moved, onto a waiting ex-army lorry. Within 20 minutes the robbery had been completed, and the 15 man gang made off in the lorry and Land Rovers, travelling to their hideout – Leatherslade Farm in Bedfordshire . A reward of £260,000 was rapidly offered by the banks affected and by the Post Office, a massive sum. Though the robbery itself had worked like clockwork, the criminals afterwards were less clever: the hideout was tracked down by the police within days, and fingerprints aplenty were found there; two gang members who were lying low in Bournemouth made the mistake of paying rental on a garage in cash with a large quantity of 10 shilling notes to a police widow, and were soon arrested, others following soon after. On April 16 the following year 12 of the gang members were sentenced to prison.

Share this: Great Train Robbery: 10 things you didn’t know The crime is still surrounded by myths on the 50th anniversary Ronnie Biggs, one of the Great Train Robbers, in police custody in 1963. It is the 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery, on Thursday. Even after all this time, many myths surround it. A new compilation, the Great Train Robbery 50th Anniversary, compiled by Nick Reynolds, son of the robbery’s architect, Bruce, who died earlier this year – and with contributions from the late robber and Ronnie Biggs – hopes to put the record straight. Here are 10 things you (quite possibly) didn’t know about it. The Bernie Ecclestone connection Completely unfounded rumours about the involvement of the Formula One supremo have circulated for years, prompting him to make the cheery denial that “there wasn’t enough money on that train”. There is a tiny connection in that one of the robbers, the late Roy James, who had been a professional racing driver, wrote from prison to the former champion Graham Hill, asking for help with his career when he came out.

He was told he was wasting his time if he hoped to return to the track. But James was an accomplished silversmith and ended up making trophies. Those 30-year sentences Jailing the robbers in 1964, Mr Justice Edmund Davies told them that “to deal with this case leniently would be a positively evil thing” and duly sent most of them down for 30 years. Yet the previous year the same judge had reduced the sentence on appeal of one Charles Connelly, who had been involved in a robbery in which a van driver in Mitcham, Surrey, was shot dead. Cutting his term from 15 to 10 years, Davies said: “The sentence was excessive.” Brighton rocked After Biggs and Charlie Wilson escaped from prison, the author Graham Greene wrote to the Daily Telegraph saying: “Am I one of a minority in feeling admiration for the skill and courage behind the Great Train Robbery? More important, am I in a minority in being shocked by the savagery of the sentences?” The Nazi connection The robbers negotiated a substantial financial deal for co-operating with the author Piers Paul Read on his 1978 book The Train Robbers.

To justify their large advance they invented a story that Otto Skorzeny, the man who organised the ex-Nazi escape network Odessa, had financed the robbery, a hoax that Read only learned of when he went to Brazil to interview Biggs. In fact, it was Bruce Reynolds who put up the necessary money to finance the robbery; it worked out at just £38 per head which he jokingly asked the robbers to refund him afterwards. There was a tangential connection here in that Biggs and another robber, Buster Edwards, got plastic surgery while on the run from a doctor who had remodelled the faces of fleeing Nazis. The unsung victim While many recall the name of Jack Mills, the driver hit over the head during the robbery – who died of leukaemia, unrelated to the attack, seven years later – few remember the name of his assistant, David Whitby. He died of a heart attack eight years later at the age of just 34. The Colin Firth connection Steady on – the actor was not quite three when the robbery took place. But on the run, Bruce Reynolds needed new names and identities for himself, his wife and his son, Nick, as they fled to Mexico and Canada.

They took the surname Firth and Nick became Colin Firth. The getaway car British Leyland ran an ad for their Mini in 1979 with the slogan “Nips in and out like Ronnie Biggs” and placed one of the posters near the flower stall of Edwards in Waterloo. Members of the public complained but the Advertising Standards Authority supposedly only queried whether BL had got Biggs’s permission to use his name. The video game Bruce Reynolds and Biggs were signed up to produce a Great Train Robbery video game in 1999 but it never came to fruition. There is, however, a zombie-themed board game called The Great Brain Robbery. (The robbers played Monopoly at their post-robbery hideout, leaving incriminating fingerprints on the board.) The lawsuit One robber, Gordon Goody, now living in Spain, sued the People from prison for suggesting he had “coerced an innocent and decent young woman” into taking part in the robbery. He won the case and received £2 in damages. Odd man in While four of the robbers were never caught, one of the men convicted, Bill Boal, was not actually involved in the robbery at all.

He was arrested because of his links to the robber Roger Cordrey. Boal was found with some of the stolen money which he claimed he had because Cordrey was repaying a debt. He died in prison in 1970, still protesting his innocence. Now his family are considering a posthumous appeal and preparing a file for the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Share this: One of the most infamous robberies of all time, 1963’s Great Train Robbery involved the hijack of a London-bound train, and the theft of millions of pounds. Late on Thursday 8 August 1963, a Travelling Post Office train left Glasgow for Euston. On board, staff sorted the mail and parcels prior to its arrival in London. The second carriage from the front of the train was a High Value Package carriage, where registered mail was sorted. Much of this consisted of cash. Usually the value of these items would have been in the region of £300,000 but, because there had been a Bank Holiday weekend in Scotland the total on the day of the robbery was £2.3 million (about £30 million today).

The wrong signal The train passed Leighton Buzzard at about 3am on 8 August 1963, and moments later the driver, Jack Mills saw a red signal ahead at a place called Sears Crossing. The signal was false. A glove had been stuffed onto the proper signal and the red light was activated by attaching it to a six volt battery. When Mills stopped, his co-driver David Whitby climbed out of the diesel engine to ring the signalman to ascertain the problem. He discovered that the cables from the line-side phone had been cut and as he turned to return to his train he was attacked and thrown down the steep railway embankment. Meanwhile, a masked man climbed into the train cab and coshed the driver around the head rendering him unconscious. Meanwhile, other robbers uncoupled most of the carriages, leaving on the engine and the first two carriages containing the high-value property. The steep embankments at Sears crossing were unpractical for removing the loot from the train but the gang had planned to drive the train a mile further to Bridego Bridge. Here, Land Rovers were waiting to transport the cash to a nearby hideout. Soon the well-planned heist encountered a problem.

One of the gang had spent months befriending railway staff on the pretence of being a railway enthusiast. He had been allowed rides in the cabs of trains and had even been permitted to drive a few trains. His part in the robbery was to drive the train to the rendezvous point but as he climbed into the cab of the train he realised that this huge diesel train was far more complicated than the local trains he had previously travelled in. One of the gang, Ronnie Biggs, had to rouse the driver to continue the journey. In the front two carriages, frightened Post Office staff were pushed to one end by some of the fifteen strong gang – but, in the remaining ten carriages left at Sears Crossing, staff did not even realise anything had happened. A human chain of robbers At Bridego Bridge a human chain of robbers removed 120 sacks containing two-and-a-half-tons of money. The robbery was well organised and swift. Before leaving, one of the gang ordered Post Office staff to stay still for 30 minutes before contacting the police. This gave the investigators an important clue, they suspected that the gang had a hideout within a 30 minute drive of the scene. This was indeed the case.

An old farmhouse in Oakley Buckinghamshire, Letherslade Farm, had been rented and during the next few days the jubilant gang shared out the cash. They even played Monopoly using real money. A huge police investigation was launched, run by the Flying Squad at Scotland Yard and senior detectives from the Buckinghamshire Police. The officer in overall command was Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Slipper. British Transport Police had a small role to play in the investigation, mainly conducting enquiries, obtaining lists of staff and suspects. Back at the farm, the gang were becoming spooked by low flying RAF aircraft who were actually on training runs and nothing to do with the manhunt that had now been established. They split the money which was mainly in used £1 and £5 notes (Biggs was to receive £147,000) and left the scene immediately rather than ‘lying low’ for several weeks as they had planned. A nearby resident became suspicious of the comings and goings at the farm and advised the police. PC John Wooley responded to the report and found large amounts of abandoned food and provisions.

Sleeping bags and bedding had been left in upstairs rooms and in the cellar, bank note wrappers, post office sacks and registered mail packages. Fingerprints on the Monopoly board A thorough examination found several fingerprints including some on the Monopoly board and others on a ketchup bottle. These fingerprints and other enquiries led to the offenders and one by one they were arrested. BTP headquarters at Park Royal in north London was regularly updated of the progress of the investigation and the Chief Constable was sent supplementary crime reports giving the names and details of those involved. They all eventually appeared in court. The mastermind of the operation, Bruce Reynolds took five years to track down but received ten years imprisonment. Ronnie Biggs received 30 years but escaped from Wandsworth prison in a furniture van only 15 months later. His flight to Brazil (via Spain and Australia) and subsequent return to the UK in May 2001 have been well documented. The verdict The gang received a total of 307 years imprisonment. Despite the huge amount of money stolen none of the thieves were able to live happily on their ill-gotten gains. Buster Edwards ended up running a flower stall at Waterloo station.

He received a lot of publicity in 1988 when Phil Collins played him in the film Buster. He took his own life in the late 1990s. James Hussey and Thomas Wisbey were convicted in 1989 for trafficking drugs, while Charles Wilson was shot and killed in Spain. It must be said that the Great Train Robbery was brilliantly planned and executed. Apart from the attack on the train driver it was non-violent and no firearms were used. The raiders managed to steal much more money than they had planned and perhaps it was the greed in sharing all the money out which led to them being careless and leaving so many fingerprints behind, sealing their own fate.

Question: Which Buckinghamshire farm was used as a hideout by the Great Train robbers?
Answer: Leatherslade